Email

State Minister Abid Sher Ali makes a gesture during the open katchehry.—INP

HYDERABAD: State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali has said that all power plants being run on oil will be shut down by 2019-20 and coal-fired power plants at Port Qasim will start generating 1,320 megawatts of electricity by next month.

Mr Ali said at an open katchehry in Wapda ground on Wednesday that record energy production had been achieved and 25,000MW of electricity would be available in the system during this year’s summer season.

He claimed that there was no electricity in the system when Mian Nawaz Sharif became prime minister but his government soon put an end to the “rule of darkness”.

The past governments only collected commission in the name of projects which were never launched on ground whereas the present government had established five new grid stations in Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) region alone and upgraded 50 others, he said.

He said that Rs4 billion were being spent in energy sector to put things on the right track and Rs200 million were being spent to provide electricity to 107 villages.

Mr Ali alleged that Babar Awan was involved in Rs60m graft case but the National Accountability Bureau did not go after him while supplementary references were being filed against Mr Sharif “even without new evidence”.

He said that he was surprised why those who were involved in corruption in import of locomotives during the Musharraf government were not arrested. PML-N leaders were appearing in peoples’ court and masses would hold them accountable if they had committed any wrongdoing, he said.

He claimed later at the inauguration of a grid station near Hyderabad bypass that PML-N government had fulfilled its promise of ending loadshedding in five years. Today there was no loadshedding on 156 feeders of Hesco and likewise no outages took place in industrial sector over the past three years.

The present government had produced 15,000MW of electricity whereas 13,000 MW were produced during last 70 years, he said, adding that a project of 800MW had been commissioned in Jhimpir.

He claimed that PPP leader Sharjeel Inam Memon used to sell CDs before amassing ill-gotten wealth and accused Asif Ali Zardari of taking 50 per cent commission on construction of every plaza in Sindh.

Mr Ali demanded that report of joint investigation team on Lyari gang war don Uzair Baloch should be made public and asked why NAB did not arrest Zardari’s sister Faryal Talpur. If Sindh had to make progress people would have to get rid of PPP, he said.

He said that if PML-N was found to be involved in corruption then its leader should be “hanged in public”, but who would lay hands on ‘Sadiq and Ameen’ who, he alleged, was involved in corruption of funds of Shaukat Khanum hospital.

He said that Constitution and constitutional institutions were supreme and next election would prove as to who was Sadiq and Ameen.

Raham Ali Otho, Hesco chief executive officer, and other officers were also present at the open katchehry.

On DawnNews

Comments (10) Closed

SHAHID SATTAR

Feb 22, 2018 08:51am

Is Karachi included in your scheme of things or is that too much to handle by your government? May be you should give it up totally and say it plainly to the world that you are not in a position to offer any help to the people of this metropolis.

Recommend0

Sameer

Feb 22, 2018 10:01am

7 hours of Loadshedding in my area. And this guy mentions record power?

Recommend0

Shah jee

Feb 22, 2018 10:06am

Thanks to China.

Recommend0

SHAHID SATTAR

Feb 22, 2018 11:07am

Will they be converted to work on coal or scrapped? Have they recovered their costs by running efficiently over a span of time or not?

Recommend0

A shah

Feb 22, 2018 11:33am

Ok sure!

Recommend0

R.Azhar

Feb 22, 2018 01:23pm

The world is moving away from coal-based power and this genius of a minister wants to take the country back to the Stone age. Moreover, this minister has the audacity to put forward a false accusations regarding misappropriation of funds at SKMCH. He should be ashamed of himself. How many cancer hospitals has the PML-N built??

Recommend0

Ali

Feb 22, 2018 01:40pm

@SHAHID SATTAR the kapco is barely allowed to work at full capacity.for a lay man,the reason is governemnt is happy to provide electricity to consumers who are paying bills like residents of dha,bahria and is not willing to supply electricity to those who dont pay bills.what he is saying is people who pay bills will have electricity and people like those discos where residents dont pay wont get electricity as kapco is shut down at 60 percent capacity as that is all wapda needs.They cant admit that openly as it will cause freebies people out in streets to start protests.

Recommend0

harris

Feb 22, 2018 02:28pm

Pakistanis have been stealing energy for generations from their govt. and to maintain status-quo have brought corrupt govt. in power... Now the innocent and honest are paying the price for not organising themselves and revolting against wrong-doings... Pakistan does not lack power generation capacity but the circular debt is the debt owed that was never paid for the electricity theft and losses....

Recommend0

kash

Feb 22, 2018 04:08pm

Credit goes to ruling govt - although i am not supporter PML

Recommend0

truthspeaks

Feb 22, 2018 05:12pm

we never had clean water, we had bad air and now it will get worse, thanks to cpec now the north will also breath the carbon